Milford to continue sending out disconnection notices

Milford residents with overdue electric bills will continue to receive disconnection notices after all, town officials said this week.

By Scott Goss

Milford residents with overdue electric bills will continue to receive disconnection notices after all, town officials said this week.

The announcement reverses City Council’s decision in June to stop mailing out the pink notices. At the time, City Manager Richard Carmean said eliminating the notices could save Milford up to $18,000 a year.

Carmean said the city determined it could afford to continue mailing out the notices after outsourcing its mailing duties to Billtrust of Hamilton, N.J., in August.

“With the late penalties for overdue electric bills usually coming in at a $1 or more, we felt we could pay Billtrust to continue that service,” he said. “Plus, it will prevent a lot of the hair pulling people would have done if they stopped getting their late notices.”

Milford typically sends out 1,800 disconnection notice each month, although only about 150 customers actually have their power shut off due to lack of payment.

Carmean said the move to eliminate the disconnection notices had as much to do with reducing the work load of city employees as it did with saving money.

By turning those responsibilities over to Billtrust, the city will still accomplish that goal, he said.

Although the city hired Billtrust in August, the service has not yet taken over the city’s mailing duties, because company and town officials are still working out the design of the new bills.